During flight, changes to a flight plan are generally communicated verbally, via radio telephony onboard the aircraft. Such flight plan changes are communicated to Air Traffic Control (ATC), which clears the requested flight plan changes for use by communicating with other aircraft in the area. Such back-and-forth voice transmissions require a significant amount of time, resulting in delays to necessary flight plan changes. Additionally, both vertical and lateral flight plan changes involve a significant amount of information for communication, resulting in increased potential for misinterpretation and miscommunication from ATC during secondary transmissions.
Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce the time required to clear flight plan changes, and to reduce the probability of misinterpretation and miscommunication of requested flight plan changes. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.